Beautiful
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: Part nine in the Polygamy Project series! This isn't what Jimmy Palmer had in mind when he agreed to do this project, but it happened anyway, and he's so glad it did.


**Number nine in the Polygamy Project series: Jimmy Palmer's story, as requested by you guys. Enjoy, my flowers!:)**

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Jimmy Palmer really isn't sure how this happened, just that it wasn't supposed to, and he might just be glad that it had.

A week ago, Abby had approached him about taking part in a two-week-long project about polygamy. She had been all pouting lips and huge puppy-dog eyes, and no one told the baby of the family "no" when she was wearing that expression, not even Agent Gibbs. So off he had gone with Breena and their newly-adopted daughter, Summer, to the little cul-de-sac community of duplexes. There at 62 Federal Lane, Jimmy had been the last one to meet his "second wife" for the two weeks, Anna Sanders.

Jimmy remembered thinking that first day that while Anna was an absolute natural with Summer, she wasn't a very pretty woman. She was short, but not really thin, her hair hung just below her shoulder blades, straight and dishwater brown, and her bright eyes were an unusual gray color. She and Breena had quickly become friends, bonding easily over Summer, and while Jimmy had originally been a little leery of the project, he had soon found that having Anna around made his and even Breena's lives a lot easier.

Being unemployed left Anna able to stay at the duplex and take care of the house as well as Summer, should Jimmy or Breena be called back to work after the baby got home from daycare. While the three adults had been too busy living their lives to pay attention to the direction their lives were taking, the team of two that was Jimmy and Breena had easily expanded to become the trio of Jimmy, Breena, and Anna. And by the end of that first work week, Jimmy had taken notice of it.

There had been a case over the weekend, so that first Saturday evening found Jimmy getting back from the NCIS morgue. He was in the middle of a bit of mental upheaval from thinking about this idea of polygamy most of the day at work, and really wasn't in the mood to go home and see Anna's pretty smile since he knew Breena wasn't home yet either. Being alone with Summer, Anna, and Anna's smile might just bring him to the point of admitting that these past couple of days he actually looked forward to seeing Anna after work as much as he did Breena, and he just wasn't ready for that. So instead of going into his house once he parked in the driveway, he walked on foot across the cul-de-sac to the basement hangout underneath the fourth duplex.

As he settled into a spot with his can of soda, he listened to some of the other guys who were already there strike up a conversation about their negative experiences thus far with a polygamous lifestyle. For some reason he found himself softly defending polygamy in a way by telling the others how well things had been going in his house. When Agent McGee brought up that he, Agent Fielding, and Abby might just be trying it long term, Jimmy wondered if that might be something that he, Breena, and Anna ought to think about considering as well throughout the final week of the project.

They discussed it later that night in their duplex living room once Summer was asleep in Breena's arms, and Jimmy was surprised at how open the two women were to the idea, especially the woman to whom he was already married. Truth be told, the decision to do this or not really rested on Breena's shoulders, because Anna was fine with it and Jimmy had decided that he would do it if he was given the chance – but only if his wife was okay with it. He was surprised by his own excitement when he realized that both women were willing to give it a try.

Impulsively, he leaned over and gave Breena a kiss when the trio's conversation was over before she smiled and got up from the couch where they had been sitting side by side, going to put Summer in her crib. After she had left the room, Jimmy's gaze shifted to the gray-eyed woman sitting in a rocking chair across the room from him.

"Now what?" he asked, smiling broadly despite the fact that he had no idea what he was supposed to do with Anna now.

She blushed prettily, answering, "Now I guess we're… dating. But I'm not kissing a married man, Jimmy. Not unless I get a ring of my own."

And one year later, she did.

Those who had chosen to remain in polygamy had stayed in the cul-de-sac, living out their lifestyle quietly and unobtrusively. Because of this, Jimmy and Anna's was a relatively small wedding, with rings and a promise exchanged, despite the unmentioned lack of an actual marriage certificate. As it was, it didn't matter to any of them anyway.

Anna was happy, his daughter was happy, even Breena was fully happy with and supportive of his marriage to Anna, and because of all of that, Jimmy was happy. So he smiled easily for "just one more" wedding picture, with Anna on one arm and Breena holding Summer on his other side, and he marveled at just how beautiful his life had become upon the addition of his second wife, whom he could no longer see as anything other than beautiful.

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